Allie Rooney, a full-time MBA student at the Eccles School, attended the National Association of Women MBAs conference last fall. It was a great networking opportunity for her, and she ended up landing her dream job in a place she never thought she’d end up. Here’s her story in her own words and why she encourages students to attend conferences.

As a full-time MBA student, there’s an expectation that we attend professional conferences in order to network and get a better feel for what’s happening in our potential career fields. But who thinks they can go from a conference to a career? I didn’t, but here’s my story of how attending a conference turned into landing my dream job!

My first year in the program, I attended the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) conference, a great experience that introduced me to the world of MBA career fairs. As I completed my first year in the program, I was trying to decide between going back to NSHMBA or attending the National Black MBA Association conference. Both seemed like good opportunities, and I just couldn’t make up my mind.

Then, I heard about the National Association of Women MBAs conference.

I did some research and decided that this was where I needed to be. I sat down with a friend from my MBA program, and we decided to make it happen. We spoke with the director of our Graduate Career Management Center, and she agreed to sponsor our trip. The GCMC took it one step further and decided to invite any female students in the MBA program to attend. With the support of the GCMC and the admissions office, the University of Utah sent 15 women to the conference in Washington, D.C.

Our Women in Business Vice President, Cassie Sadinski, took the initiative to run for a position on the NAWMBA executive board, and she was selected! While at the conference, we listened to outstanding keynote speakers, networked with fellow MBA students, attended panels of professional women, and handed out resumes at a career fair.

One of my favorite experiences was attending the industry panels and information
sessions. There, I heard from women in both finance and consulting, from companies such as Ford and Amazon and government organizations such as the CIA and FDIC.

Interacting with women from these amazing companies via the NAWMBA conference was a much more personal experience. It wasn’t your stereotypical formal recruiting speech — I felt like I really got to know what these women were like (there was even laughter!). In between the professional opportunities, we also had some fun. A group of spent an entire day sight-seeing around our Nation’s Capital, visiting as many monuments and museums as we could work in. NAWMBA also put on a “Little Black Dress” reception for all conference attendees, which gave us an opportunity to meet with professional women in a relaxed setting over dinner and drinks.

Overall, this was a great experience that we are all happy to have had. I would definitely recommend this conference to any student (male or female) who would like to support women in the workplace and work toward complete workplace equality. Being around so many women who have been able to make a place for themselves in the business world was truly inspiring, and I hope to one day be able to go back as a professional participant.

Super exciting side-note! I landed my dream job at Ford Motor Company located in Dearborn, Michigan through networking at this event. (Will you be next?)

The 2015 NAWMBA conference will be in Houston, Texas from October 15-17.

For more information on women in the David Eccles School of Business, check out our graduate and undergraduate Women in Business organizations.